"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

LEAVING THE NEOCATECHUMENAL WAY TO STAY CLOSE TO THE LAST ONES

Posted by LaPaz, Jungle Watch Correspondant from Spain.

Dear friends of Jungle Watch:

I apologize for my absence during these last weeks. Although I could not writte due to several matters, I have stayed reading every day...It is quite important for us, former members of the Way and people who have a critical view about it, to look at Guam. You are an example for many people around the world.

Today I would like to share with you the last testimony published originally in Neocatecumenali's blog (written in Italian, here) and also translated for Spanish speakers in Cruxsancta (here). This is the great opportunity we have with internet: we can share thoughts, feelings and experiences about the same problems that concern us.

Such a simple thing, which could seem so obvious for any person who lives in our times, is something prohibited for neocatechumenal followers, since the moment Kiko has warned them very seriously to stay away from the internet Devil.

Kiko has no power over us!

That is also an apparent absolutely simple and obvious thing, but I tell you it is not so easy for those who have been trapped in his spider's web. Every time I read a new letter from a new cardinal or a new archibishop praising the goodness of the Neocatechumenal Way -the last, Cardinal Muller- I realise the inmense value of my own freedom, hardly reconquered after many years of suffering.

And when for a while I lose that my thought, I look at you, people of Guam, I look at any of the thousands of the beaten sheep I have known in Neocatecumenali and Cruxsancta. All of them, all of you, make me remember again my only and truly sheperd, JesusChrist, who gave his life to rescue his very lost sheep, not the fat and happiest ones, but the most sick and weak: the last of all.

In that sense I want you to read next testimony. This is Don Giuseppe, a priest who entered the Way in 1975 and decided to leave it after a deep inner work and after having shared his reflexions with his neocatechumenal community and catechists to advice them he will no longer tolerate their liturgical abuses and he will not bow down to its sectarian logic.

"When a faithful person, attracted by the beautiful words of the announcement, participates in the initial catechesis, after the first convivence in the beginning, he is urgently asked if he "freely" wants to start the Way, and is told that he will be guided by catechists to whom he must render absolute obedience, because they "possess" the Holy Spirit.

The problem is in the word "possess". Who has given it to them and when it has been given to them? It is an amazing and deceptive premise.

The reasoning is always the same. Faith is given to you by the Church (this is correct!), then we have the Holy Spirit because we are in the Church that gives us faith! The fact that a priest is present should guarantee this, but who is above that priest? The bishop or the super-catechists?

However, since a priest is present, it is taken for granted that everything is good, and it is believed that at the bottom is the action and the will of the bishop! Here is the trick. How many catechesis we have done without the bishop's command, usurping his authority! In fact to clear the conscience, then he was warned of what had been done, informing him so beautifully and hypocritically of a crime.

With the "possession" of this spirit (in a lowercase, so that it is not confused with the Spirit of God), catechists can say and dismiss, do and undo in the name of the Church, even if they use concepts of doubtful doctrine or attitudes of dubious eclesial discipline.

But I am a priest: how could I then digest such logic?

For invariably there was another "presbyter," who was superior to me as a catechist, who guaranteed that things were well.

(Well for whom? For the NCW, but not well for being in conformity with the doctrine of the Church).

In fact, the word of the catechist was held to be of much greater authority than mine, although I received the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands of the bishop in my priestly ordination and not by the hands of other lay catechists, as is often done in the Way.

Exact. Obedience to catechists, based on the fact that they claim to have the Holy Spirit, over the years, and especially with the passing of the scrutiny, in which only they, by presumed gift of the Holy Spirit, know the truth about Your life (the expression is "learning to have the eye of the catechist" that scrutinizes your soul to the very "internal fuero") becomes a powerful glue difficult to overcome.

By default, they are always right without any place for doubt, besides, there is no problem if they are wrong, because from error God brings out your good! Consequently, nothing can be done or thought contrary to what the catechists say.

The expression "they gave their life for you" is famous. I still hope that one day they will tell how they have given their lives for their catechumens. Since they "have" the Holy Spirit, their judgment on you is always worth more. A judgment always or almost always expressed in front of the community, so that daring to manifest something different to what they like, involves turning against the community.

The faithful who enters into this logic does not understand the tremendous psychological conditioning that takes place, such that if one wants to leave the Way immediately comes to his mind that repeated and trite phrase: "He who leaves the Way leaves the Church."

It is a subtle violence under the appearance of good!

I am convinced that today we are going through a very difficult time in the Church, and parishes often offer little, especially the Sacraments are often mismanaged by us priests, but I am convinced that to be with the latter is to be where the Church lives all its poverty looking with suffering to be faithful to Jesus and his Gospel.

While it is true that in the NCW everything is organized and gives you the security of feeling more Church than the others, often like being the first one of the class, I prefer to be with others in a situation in which, unlike by the praxis of the Way, faith is a serious achievement every day!

Now the situation has been reversed: the last ones do not enter the Way; The last and the little ones are and always have been outside, excluded from their golden castle, and to enter it there is only one condition: to enter into the very narrow logic of the neocatechumenal command.

I have choosen to stay with the last ones".

In the NCW Kiko even decides which Christmas songs should be sung, of course those which he has "arranged" with his neo-jewish adaptations. Of course, that is why Diana could listen some Christmas songs from different cultures during the last RMS Christmas concert. I am sure I could bring her a relation of those songs even when I was not there. It is more about Kiko's narcisism and megalomania.

After leaving the NCW, I started to look with different eyes at the traditional Christmas music of my country, in fact the same country where Kiko was born. I suddenly discovered I was able to feel moved by "natural religious" songs because I started to open my soul at common people's expressions of faith.

I want to bring here an example. It is a traditional Christmas song, too much ordinary for Kiko, of course. It talks about the true poor sheperds from Andalucía who used to anounce the Aurora coming with their little bells (in Spanish, campanillas). This is a pure flamenco version of that song, called "los Campanilleros", here by Diana Navarro.

Even without speaking Spanish and so not understanding the lyrics, I belive the emotion surpasses the language. The good new of JesusChrist goes further than words. Just listen and enjoy!

7 comments:

Thank You Lapaz for another insight into the NCW inner working.I have always wondered how a lay catechist can be hailed to such high esteem, over Priests and Bishops ordained with the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a special way by Christ himself in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, except that in the NCW this is a design of the man Kiko supposedly which trumps that gift given to the Church by Christ.

How does a catechist posses the "Holy Spirit" like it is a material tangible item? Is it not a gift of God? from what mechanism does the catechist possess it? through the means of Kiko's ordination or prouncement upon the catechist? If so, then it is from human origins. The Sacraments are divine gifts to the Church through another Divine Instituted means, the Sacrament of Holy Orders, It is truly a sensible, tangible sign instituted by Christ himself for the purposes of giving us Supernatural Grace.

Thank you La Paz. It is a beautiful song. For those who want to listen again, below is an English translation so the song can come to life!

Los Campanilleros (The bell ringers)In the villages of Andalucia (a region in spain)The bell ringers wake me upWith their bells in the early morningAnd with their guitars they make me cryI begin to singAnd when they hear me all the birdsin the trees fly away

little birds go to the countrysidefollow the star, fly to Bethlehemthere’s a little boy waiting for youhe’s the king of the heavens and the earthfly to Bethlehemthere’s a little boy waiting for youhe’s the king of the heavens and the earth

in the night of Christmas eveunder the stars and in the early morningthe priests with their bellsadore the child that has bornand with devotionthey go playing zambombas (drum-like folk instrument) and tambourinessinging the verses of God’s son

on the doorstep of a rich hagglerJesus arrived, begging almsAnd instead of giving him almsHe set his dogs onBut as God wanted, …The dogs dropped dead instantlyAnd the rich haggler turned poor

You should’ve seen how the king of heavensEntered JerusalemHe didn’t want cars nor carriagesJust a little donkey that was rentedHe wanted to showThat the divine gates to heavenAre only opened for humbleness

Very well said Padre and La Paz. I too took the long road of extracting myself from the Way. It took more than 2 decades to muster all courage with prayer that I was going to leave. I could not understand why every time I say something to explain and ask a question, I was always greeted with, "you are stubborn and hard headed, the devil is manipulating you to go against us (catechist), you are disobedient. I reached Reditio and I just walked away with out saying anything to my catechist (itenerant-international) because it was no use.I am really sorry to what is happening in Guam.

Can I ask a question. Kiko always emphasises the importance of being faithful to the original charism. At what point did the "charism" begin to need the presence of a priest as part of the team? Was this after leaving Spain and moving to Rome. Was the move from Spain in some way linked with the need for clerical control? Was this faithful to the original "charism" or just an approved deviation?